The Living Nightmare
by Tatsurou-san
Summary: Birthday present request for a friend from DA. Raven experiences her worst nightmare.
1. Chapter 1

The Living Nightmare

Raven awoke in a hospital bed. She didn't know what was going on, or how she'd gotten there. But she knew something was wrong. Getting up, she threw off the covers and headed out of the room.

Outside the room, she was confused that she didn't come across anyone. No one was moving, there wasn't a single sound in the entire building. Each room she came across was completely unattended, and several beds held people, although the sheets were pulled over them completely, showing they were dead.

Concerned now, she ran for the exit and pushed her way through. Outside, she saw the landscape. "No..." she whispered.

The world was scorched and blackened. The buildings were in ruins, and the sky was red. Just like her every nightmare of the end of the world when her father came to rule.

"It can't be..." she whispered, refusing to believe. "I prevented this..."

She walked along until she came to the scene of a battle. It had obviously been a furious battle, but had ended badly. Right in front of her, she saw Robin's broken body.

"Robin?" She ran to him and placed her hands on his shoulder.

Robin swung on his hookshot towards the foe, readying his freeze disc. Suddenly, two beams of light lanced towards him. The first cut his hookshot, while the second punched through his chest. He felt his heart catch as it was torn asunder, and fell to his doom on the burning ground below. Nothing would save him from being splattered across the cold, uncaring ground, just as nothing had saved his parents...

Raven pulled her hands back, shuddering at the vision. It was so horrible...

Getting up, she staggered away from the body of her friend, and came across a strange thorn bush, the vines twisted around and intertwined, blood dripping from the thorns. Raven reached out to touch the thorns, wondering what would cause such a strange growth.

"ROBIN!"

Starfire dove after her falling friend, her beloved. She couldn't believe it. She had been fighting with all her might, but when she had fired her eyebeams, intending to catch their foe by surprise, they had been deflected, and had struck Robin. One through the chest, one severing his swing line. She dove after him, trying to save him...but was too late.

She landed on the ground some distance away as she stared at his broken body, weeping in agony. Her own powers had destroyed her beloved, as she had long feared, the one thing that had kept her from pursuing their relationship to the fullest. Suddenly, the vines sprouted from teh ground at her feet, feeding on her sorrow, and growing rapidly, full of thorns.

With Robin dead, she could call forth no joy. Seeing his broken body robbed her of her courage. And being the one who caused his death robbed her of any target for rage. And so, powerless and grief stricken, she gave her last scream as body and heart were simultaneously torn apart.

Raven staggered back from the thorny vines. "Star...no..." Weeping, she staggered away, desperately seeking some sign of the others, some reason to hope. Stumbling, her hand closed around what she thought was the arm of a statue.

"NO!"

Cyborg screamed in frustration as he saw his friends falling. Desperately, he channeled as much energy as he could into his cybernetics, amplifying his processing power until he could find a way to win, to avenge his friends.

-Irrelevant. Impossible. Futile.-

He struggled as his cybernetics suddenly turned against him. The human inside was ready to fight and die to avenge his friends. But the machine knew it was pointless, a waste of energy. And so the machine took action to deal with this innefficiency, to accept the inevitable.

As Cyborg stared into his sonic cannon, the energy gathering, he let off one last scream of impotent rage, grief, and fear.

Raven jumped back from what was left of Cyborg's cybernetics and ran, tears falling from her eyes. Then came the moment she feared the most. She came to the last body.

Garfield lay upon the ground, his body torn asunder, his limbs and entrails scattered across the landscape. He had a huge goofy grin on his face, locked in rigor mortis. A comical cigar was stuck in his mouth, and his eyes - though bereft of life - were filled with love.

Raven, staggering backward, vomited onto the ground. She could not bring herself to touch Garfield, to discover what it was that caused his death. She fled the destruction, the loss of all she cared about, desperate to escape.

But there was no escape, as she came across what she knew she would see. Trigon the Terrible sat on a throne made from what was left of Titan's Tower. He grinned down at Raven. "Welcome, daughter, to the end of the world."

"But I stopped you!" Raven shouted. "This can't be true!"

"Yes," Trigon said in a sibbilant whisper. "You did. But I have a new gem, now." A blood red crystal floated around his head, with something inside.

Not knowing why, Raven put her hands to her abdomen, and felt wetness. Lifting her hands, she saw them coated in a dark red substance, almost black. Looking down, she saw a hole in her abdomen, as though something had been ripped out of her. Unwilling to accept what she was seeing she fled, her father's pitiless laughter pursuing her.

FInally, she came across something resembling hope. A little girl with black hair staggered around like a broken doll, her white dress gently brushing the ground. Raven called out to her. "Come here," she said. "It's not safe here. I'll help you."

The girl turned towards her, and staggered slowly forward.

"That's it," Raven said as the girl approached. "You can trust me." She extended her arms to hug the girl as she came to a halt.

The girl opened her four red eyes and reached. Her hands became claws, and Raven felt one plung into her chest, piercing her heart. She gasped, and coughed up blood. The little girl grinned at her, showing twin rows of razor sharp teeth, as she took hold of Raven's face with her other clawed hand.

"Mama," the girl whispered lovingly, as she opened her mouth wide. 


	2. Chapter 2

Waking from The Living Nightmare

"Raven! Raven, wake up!"

Raven opened her eyes. As her vision came into focus, at first all she could see was green. Then, after a few gasping breaths, she saw green eyes gazing down at her. "Gar..." she whispered, before pulling him to her, crying.

"Easy there, Rae, easy." Desperately, Garfield tried to comfort his wife. "Easy. It's okay. It was just a dream."

After a time, Raven managed to calm down. "But, Garfield...I'm not so sure..."

He smiled at her. "Rae, remember what the doctor said?" He placed his hands on Raven's heavily swollen abdomen. "Your hormones have been going crazy cause of this lately, which means you're going to have some crazy dreams. I mean, just the other night you dreamed about killer waffles of all things, remember?"

Raven blushed. She did remember that.

"See? And after that, you went and destroyed every waffle in the house. Don't worry about it." Leaning in, he kissed her on the forehead. "It was just a crazy dream caused by hormones your body still isn't used to. Just put it out of your mind, and get back to sleep." He smiled, caressing her belly. "It's soon, and you need as much rest as you can get, right?"

"Yeah..." She nodded. "I guess you're right."

They curled up again together, Garfield curling and shaping his body around Raven so she could sleep comfortably. Garfield was right. There wasn't anything to worry about, beyond the chance of trouble during delivery. Curling up, she tried to close her eyes. It's not like she was having visions again. She hadn't had any real visions since they beat Trigon. It was only a dream...

...right? 


End file.
